Monday, November 2, 2009

The recent post which featured Denise from ChezUs' beautiful dark chocolate macarons with bittersweet ancho chili ganache reminded my wife Michele that it'd been a while since she'd whipped up a batch of her famous chili chocolate cookies.

These dense, dark, and dangerously addictive cookies feature a dose of black pepper and cayenne, which to some may seem like an odd addition. But one taste and you'll understand the method to this madness.

Just like adding a pinch of salt to dessert recipes makes them even sweeter and more delicious, the addition of pepper in this cookie really makes the chocolate even more chocolaty. The cookies aren't really "spicy," but you can definitely tell something strange and wonderful is happening.

I'm terrible with keeping my secret ingredients, secret. As soon as someone says, "Hey, what's in these?" I spill the beans. However, if you're one of those sadistic cooks that loves tormenting your foodie friends by not telling them what that certain something is, then this recipe is for you, since the spices are very hard to identify.

A couple notes about the recipe ingredients below. I use kosher salt for just about everything, but I always have to remind myself that it has a much flakier, larger grain, so 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt is really like 1/4 teaspoon of fine table salt. The measurement below is for fine salt, so double it if you also use flake-style kosher salt.

Also, Michele decided to reverse the chocolate blend in the original recipe by using 2 parts unsweetened chocolate to 1 part bittersweet. If you like really sweet cookies use 2 parts bittersweet to 1 part unsweetened.

If you're not sure, make 4 or 5 batches and experiment with different combinations. You really can’t practice too much when it comes to these strange, but spectacular cookies. Enjoy!

heyy Chef John, I made those cookies last night and they are ABSOLUTELY delicious. Although instead of Kahlua (I couldn't find it) I added Bacardi and some coffee. Thanks for the recipe. Aggie (14 years old :) )

Thanks Chef John! I'm going to try out this recipe tonight!BTW, regarding the unsweetened chocolate, is it the same as baking chocolate? I was able to get bittersweet chocolate but only saw 'No sugar added' milk chocolate at the store.

They are delicious!! I left out the cayenne pepper & did all the rest accordingly & they are just melt in your mouth delicious! I may just add additional 1/8tsp ground bp the next time to test the recipe

Hi, I realize that you only use normal fine sugar in the making of your cookies, can I have your opinion regarding replacing some fine/white sugar with brown sugar? Lastly, I never like raisins in my chocolates or cookies, but can I know roughly what is the taste of mixing raisins and kahlua together? Thanks!

This is a very, very, very good cookie. This an adult chocolate cookie. Kudos to your wife, and kudos to you for marrying her. I made a cocktail to accompany them: 1 part Bailey's, 1 part Chambord, 1/2 part creme de cacao, 1/2 part vanilla vodka, 1 part creme. Shake with ice, serve in a martini glass, shave a touch of nutmeg over the top to garnish. Cookies and milk for adults.

I love the idea of milk for adults! And I love this recipe. Made them couple times, I didn't find cayenne though so I used dried chili peppers and they worked fantastic. I also often substitute dried currants with candied orange peels and kahlua with cointreau. Amazing. Last time I used home made butter and they turned just excelent.

This recipe looks fabulous. I can't wait to try it. Putting up the Christmas tree today and baking cookies tonight. These will be on my list of Christmas cookies this year. If you have a recipe for a great ginger snap, please let me know. I love ginger snaps, but they have to be flavorful, and with a good snap. Many recipes I've found are chewy. They should be called 'ginger chews', not snaps.

Hi me and my mother are making these cookies for christmas and my grandmother doesnt like spice so much but loves these cookies... any suggestions? Mom says to leave out the pepper but would that mess up the cookies?? Thanks

I baked these yesterday with a friend and we used Amaretto instead of Kahlua. The results were amazing and I find it hard to imagine that using Kahlua would make them taste any better. I handed out a few at a dance Sunday night and floored everybody.

Finally got all the ingredients together and made them today with my daughter. We've been looking forward to this for a while. The cookies are delicious, and we love the cayenne and peppery bite to the rich chocolatey flavor. Thanks for the recipe.

Dear Chef John,I just made these cookies and ate one while still warm. So good!I substitutet the currants with raisins and did a few other minor changes, because I'm the boss of my cookies. ;-) They came out really delicious!Thanks for the great recipe. Greetings from Germany!

How many Units to get little Timmy tipsy? 3? That's 120 cookies without taking into account you let most of it evaporate in the pan and oven, and that the cookies you're not "drinking" on an empty stomach.

I was very excited to make these cookies, but upon tasting them I was disappointed to find out they taste just like Dutch chocolate 'pepernoten'. You can buy those in any supermarket and many other stores in the Netherlands from October to December.